I didn't play Wasteland at the time (we didn't have a PC in 1988) and by the time I got one in High School (~1996) I was smitten by XCom, Warcraft 2, and soon to be Starcraft, Diablo, Fallout, Baldurs Gate, etc so I never fully appreciated the original Wasteland game. That being said, I donated $100 towards this Kickstarter. While I have little nostalgia for Wasteland in particular, I have a huge amount for old school pc RPGs. I loved Fallout 1 & 2 at the time they came out, and mourned the loss of Black Isle. Even more modern day RPGs like Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines showed brilliance (and ultimately even more anguish when Troika closed shop). I even enjoyed Fallout 3! Now I realize it wasn't the same as Fallout 1 & 2, but I felt for what it was, it was pretty good. Even if some missteps were made along the way, I feel it made Bethesda a better developer coming out than going in, trying to live up to the series legacy. Then of course New Vegas came along and gave me the perfect meshing of old and new Fallout games.

Anyways, I just wanted to post that it is up now, and *crosses fingers* I hope it sees the light of day!

You know, if this thing works out for them, it's really going to be fascinating what happens next. I'm sure a lot of other great designers are watching closely to see if it turns out to be a viable plan.

I'm curious to what extent a designer using this model is restrained by expectant fans vs. the traditional skepticism of a publisher. It could be that the fans will be so narrow-minded in their interests that the resulting product is a fan-pleaser but not necessarily anything truly great and/or original. I've already seen some fans asking for refunds because of what Fargo said in my interview with him (I'm not actually sure what the offending comments were, though). I don't know if Kickstarter actually allows refunds, but it would be nasty if halfway through the development a bunch of disgruntled pinheads pull their support and start bashing the team.

I think short-term this will have big implications for classic gaming fans, but beyond that, I just don't know. After all, there are only so many classic franchises that are in the position Wasteland or the Double Fine guys were. In this case, Kickstarter is NOT encouraging ANY innovation--it's just giving a sizable niche audience exactly what they want (that's the goal, anyway). This is fan service on a grand scale, nothing more. For now, that's perfectly fine, but again, that type of thing has a short shelf life.

With that said, the Kickstarter model DOES encourage innovation overall, particularly with niche products, like clever iPhone cases, or nifty watches or something.

As for people backing out, I think that's normal in anything like this. I would think before something reaches critical mass, people more or less get the Kickstarter concept. As a Kickstarter project blows up, you start to get people who don't really understand exactly what they're getting themselves into.

You know, if this thing works out for them, it's really going to be fascinating what happens next. I'm sure a lot of other great designers are watching closely to see if it turns out to be a viable plan.

I'm curious to what extent a designer using this model is restrained by expectant fans vs. the traditional skepticism of a publisher. It could be that the fans will be so narrow-minded in their interests that the resulting product is a fan-pleaser but not necessarily anything truly great and/or original. I've already seen some fans asking for refunds because of what Fargo said in my interview with him (I'm not actually sure what the offending comments were, though). I don't know if Kickstarter actually allows refunds, but it would be nasty if halfway through the development a bunch of disgruntled pinheads pull their support and start bashing the team.

I think short-term this will have big implications for classic gaming fans, but beyond that, I just don't know. After all, there are only so many classic franchises that are in the position Wasteland or the Double Fine guys were. In this case, Kickstarter is NOT encouraging ANY innovation--it's just giving a sizable niche audience exactly what they want (that's the goal, anyway). This is fan service on a grand scale, nothing more. For now, that's perfectly fine, but again, that type of thing has a short shelf life.

With that said, the Kickstarter model DOES encourage innovation overall, particularly with niche products, like clever iPhone cases, or nifty watches or something.

As for people backing out, I think that's normal in anything like this. I would think before something reaches critical mass, people more or less get the Kickstarter concept. As a Kickstarter project blows up, you start to get people who don't really understand exactly what they're getting themselves into.

You know, if this thing works out for them, it's really going to be fascinating what happens next. I'm sure a lot of other great designers are watching closely to see if it turns out to be a viable plan.

I'm curious to what extent a designer using this model is restrained by expectant fans vs. the traditional skepticism of a publisher. It could be that the fans will be so narrow-minded in their interests that the resulting product is a fan-pleaser but not necessarily anything truly great and/or original. I've already seen some fans asking for refunds because of what Fargo said in my interview with him (I'm not actually sure what the offending comments were, though). I don't know if Kickstarter actually allows refunds, but it would be nasty if halfway through the development a bunch of disgruntled pinheads pull their support and start bashing the team.

It's a shame they have no plans for iPad (or ANY mobile) support. I think it would work well on that platform. I know I'm looking forward to the Baldur's Gate update on there... And speaking of that, it would be nice to see some type of proper Elder Scrolls series game on something like the Vita, which could surely handle it. The last one we got was for the Nokia N-Gage, and I can't say I particularly cared for the compromises...

Here’s a big, bouncy ball of unexpected good news for you. Brian Fargo and his studio inXile Entertainment are, as you well know, working on a sequel to the seminal RPG Wasteland, and have successfully Kickstarted it to the tune of $1.6 million. Since exceeding their initial target of $900,000, they’ve been able to add Mac and Linux versions to their masterplan for the post-nuclear roleplaying game. But that’s not all. They’ve just been in touch to say that, if they can reach $2.1 million during the 17 days remaining on the funding schedule, they’ll be bringing in Obisidian Entertainment, including Planescape: Torment mastermind Chris Avellone, to help them make the game.

I tried to hold off on this, but decided to do the $50 tier. Top-down, old school RPG with a modern resolution complete with a big box is too tough to pass up. The downside with all this though is that we don't know what we'll end up with or when we'll get it...